Sleep science, mental health, and anti-cyber-bullying are the big topics this week. We catch up on Tony’s trip, and William read a novel! Also, Tony eats dinner. Enjoy!
QUESTIONS:
If you are what you eat, does that mean we’re all getting dumber because we don’t eat intelligent beings? –Mark McKibben
LINKS:
This makes me so happy, I can’t even cope!
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I think Tony’s right about using the word psychiatrist. From what I know about psychiatrists, they don’t actually do therapy very often. Because they’re medical doctors, the treatments and the diagnoses methods they are geared to are physically based (medicine, MRIs, blood tests). Most of the time, the people I know have been referred to therapists, and then the therapist might refer to a psychiatrist if the therapist thinks the person might need medicine as well as talk therapy. I don’t know of people ususally starting with the psychiatrist and then being referred to therapy.
Tony is describing (again, I think?) just what I didn’t like about Book 2 in The Magicians series. I also think that overall the author overdoes the darkness. I read an interview with the author and I think he talked about wanting to give reality to stories like this. And generally I think modern authors (and readers) think that reality always means the grimmest possible characters and circumstances.
Oh, and the third book is the best!
“You are what you eat”–I wonder if that idea (not the saying) goes back to the Middle Ages and sympathetic magic–like, eat walnuts and you’ll get smarter (’cause walnuts look like brains), or eat fish and you’ll get smarter (’cause fish are grey, brains are grey).
Book recommendation: Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini, 1922
I’ve always loved the old Errol Flynn movie, but was a bit afraid to pick up the book just because I like the movie so much (afraid the book wouldn’t be as good). The book is even better! The writing style is really good. Well-drawn characters and clever dialogue. I also like the way it’s framed as if the narrator is delivering an account based on historical documents. Also Sabatini is very close to a lot of actual history in the telling–I think the initial part of Blood’s story is based on a real doctor who was arrested in the Monmouth rebellion. But the main thing I’ve been surprised by is Sabatini’s portrayal of gender roles and representation of female characters, especially given the time it was written. I’m now reading a series of short stories with the same set of characters and am liking those just as much.
“He Cleaned Our House!” At least he didn’t clean your clock 🙂
Weren’t you listening? He *also* cleaned out clock! And put fresh batteries in it! 😀
Hah! 🙂
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exception_that_proves_the_rule
What was freaky?
New house? Did I miss an announcement that Tony has moved?
Williams friends: Dang, I must be the exception to the rule here.
Nissan Rogue: Yup, they’re nice. That’s actually what my wife drives these days. Did your rental have a backup camera? We insisted on having one as the rear window is waaaaaaaay too small. Her gas mileage, with the Nissan, is averaging around 24-30 mpg; while the VW Golf it replaced was getting around 20-23 mpg. So that’s nice. 🙂
Glass blowing sounds pretty awesome and Tony should post pictures of his creation when it arrives.
Kirk cleaned your house? Damn, that’s a really good friend.
The Magicians Trilogy: I really liked book 1 and was excited for book 2. But when I read book 2, I just couldn’t dig it. I’ve kept it around to try again but haven’t gotten around to doing so yet.
William finished a novel? Writing? Oh reading one. Well that’s nice.
Longest book you’ve read: Hmm according to GoodReads, the longest individual book I’ve read weighs in at 2,007 pages.
If you’re referring to the complimentary comments I made about my friends (smart, etc.), no, you’re not an exception to that rule. 🙂